SoSe 2026

April 15, 2026 – Dr. Charlotte Prud'homme

Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques (CRPG)

Dust and Stone: What loess and carbonates reveal about past climate?

In the context of ongoing climate instability, understanding how climate variability affects terrestrial environments is a major challenge. Terrestrial archives preserve valuable information that allows us to reconstruct how landscapes and climates have changed in the past. The Pleistocene period (2.6 million to 11,700 years ago) was characterized by strong climate fluctuations, alternating between cold glacial periods and warmer interglacial phases. While these changes are well documented in ice cores and marine sediments, they are also recorded in continental environments. In Eurasia, loess sequences (wind-blown dust) constitute key records of both short-term (stadial–interstadial) and long-term (glacial–interglacial) climate cycles. Cold and dry periods are marked by intense dust accumulation, whereas warmer and more humid phases are characterized by reduced sedimentation and the development of soils. The thickness and characteristics of these soils reflect the duration and intensity of past warming phases. Loess-paleosol sequences are therefore sensitive to past climate variability. However, these sequences contain few biological indicators, making it difficult to directly quantify past climate conditions. In this seminar, I will present an approach that combines geochemical indicators with chronological methods to extract climate information from carbonate materials preserved in loess sequences. These materials come from contrasting environments, including periglacial regions of Western Europe and arid areas of Central Asia. Because these carbonates are sensitive to environmental conditions, there isotopic signature can provide valuable insights into past temperature, precipitation, and environmental changes. This work improves our understanding of rapid climate variations on Western Europe and offers new perspectives on the long-term evolution of the climate system in Central Asia.
Charlotte_Prudhomme